Austrian cycling seeks harsher doping penalties

The Austrian cycling federation has called for doping to be classified as a criminal offense, leading to harsher punishment for riders who use banned substances.

"It's totally clear that the current degree of penalty is not sufficient," federation president Otto Flum told national broadcaster ORF on Thursday.

Flum spoke out a day after Austrian national champion Christian Pfannberger was pulled from the Giro d'Italia and suspended from his Katusha team after failing a drug test.

"This case underlines our demand for criminal prosecution of athletes who use doping," Flum said. "If there were another solution, we would support it, but I don't see any other option."

Austria toughened its anti-doping laws last year, making the selling – but not the use – of banned substances a criminal offense with prison terms of up to five years.

Usually, an athlete is suspended from competition for two years after a first doping offense, and banned for life after a second violation.

Sports minister Norbert Darabos has said on numerous occasions he would favor bringing doping under the same criminal law but has faced fierce political resistance so far.

Pfannberger's failed test was the third recent doping scandal in Austrian cycling.

In November, Bernhard Kohl was banned for two years after a doping violation at last year's Tour de France. Kohl admitted to using the new blood-booster CERA. His former manager, Stefan Matschiner, was later arrested for allegedly supplying banned substances to Kohl and other athletes.

Earlier this year, Christoph Kerschbaum became the first Austrian athlete arrested under the new anti-doping laws for allegedly selling EPO and other performance-enhancing substances.